Icewind's Ramblings

That could be a series of topics that I may develop into my blog but for now my thoughts reflect the time spent with our elders and other seniors compared to our own days on Earth. I had a pleasant surprise this past weekend when I received a phone call by one of my distant family members who was in Alaska for the start of a two week vacation consisting of a week by railroad glass domed ‘Wilderness Explorer” cruise cars and the second week on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing south from Whittier to Vancouver along the inside passage with stops in several cities. I had just returned from the lake when I received the phone call from my ‘uncle’ Aubrey.  He and his wife were traveling with a church group of friends from Florida , Georgia , and Tennessee .  They had just arrived in Alaska after an all day trek across country.  They had left Florida in the early morning with stops/plane changes in Atlanta and Salt Lake City before arriving in Anchorage in late aft...

This one has been filed away for some time now and I just realized it was never posted. This one comes from a road trip I took to drive above the “Arctic Circle” and see the start of the Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay my first summer in Alaska. I guess I need to look in my ‘working posts’ folder more often. Four hundred and fifty miles into Friday's 16-hour drive from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay, I jam my credit card into a Chevron pump just off “the haul road” in Fairbanks , Alaska . The pump spits it back at me and tells me to go inside and make arrangements at the counter. I'm not in the mood. I shuffle up to the counter and tell the woman, "I don't know what's wrong out at Pump 8 but it won't take my credit card." She doesn't bat an eye. "Must not like you," she deadpans. Then she grabs the card and says, "Go pump your gas." By the time I get back to the car, I'm laughing. It's two o...

Alaska is “hot” for a change with temperatures near a record of 80 degrees here in Anchorage . The past weekend was nice with warmth like has not been seen for several years but with the dry comes forest fire dangers. There are several large fires in the interior west southwest of Fairbanks and with our high pressure situated just so is bringing the smoke down from the north across south central Alaska . It reminds me of my travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachia and the hazy look found there. The lake wasn’t too bad but the view around Anchorage today is quiet hazy. With the smoke and haze it reminded me of one of my childhood friends. It’s hard to believe Smokey Bear is 65 years old. Many people still think that his name is Smokey the Bear but that is not right for all these years. Happy Birthday Smokey! There are still the teaching tools for the kids available and updated commercials and print ads that show Smokey has a...

Happy New Year everyone and to start off with something slightly different I present a family living in the far northern reaches of Alaska, out in the middle of nowhere and a figment of my imagination upon seeing some pictures in the Anchorage Daily News . My mind kept thinking of these pictures all night awaiting the approaching New Year. About 2 am under a clear sky and cold night I remembered a small spot on the road on my drive to the Arctic Circle a few years ago to see the Arctic Ocean . I drove from Anchorage to Deadhorse where the oil companies have their camps for the ‘slopers’ who work in the oil industry. As you can see I have too much time on my hands during my one day off to celebrate the New Year. Enjoy. Welcome to Livengood Alaska , population 26 in the summer and the 6 of us in the wintertime. It’s a quiet place where you can let your kids play with no worries unless the abundant moose and the occasional bear wander too close to the house. ...

I have worked for the Hughes Service Center for the last four years The cold has crept into Alaska over the last couple of days making things interesting again. The interior is even colder with their temperatures around the minus 40˚ to - 60˚F below zero. On top of that some areas are getting high winds for the next two days. Texas and Louisiana has their hurricanes but for most people I think they could not even fathom hurricane winds at 40 below. That probably puts the wind chill factor below minus 100+ below zero. That’s Alaska tonight and I do not see the Weather Channel or Today Show doing any live broadcasts from here. They’re wussies I guess as I talked to one of my contacts in Fairbanks earlier today who said several people came into his store wearing shorts. Yeah, we are slightly off kilter here. I had several who made comments to me today about wearing my Hawaiian shirts at minus 20 below. I told them “it’s a dry cold” but really it was colder than...

I'm a little bit aggravated. I take that back, I'm very upset. Would you like to know why? Of course you would. I'm mad because Subway restaurants have stopped their classic "Sub Club" promotion. One of the nice things that I have enjoyed these years in Alaska is I usually have an opportunity to eat lunch several days a week in sandwitch shops like Subway and Quiznos. My company also does the plumbing and mechanical work in all of the Subway’s so I usually am not too far from one during my normal course of my business activities. For many years now I seemed to have at least two days a week of stopping by a Subway for a quick meal. For me the BMT has been a favorite and getting the stamps with each sandwitch I could fill up a card in about two weeks for a ‘free’ sub. Anyone who’s ever eaten at a Subway restaurant knows what I'm talking about. Every time you bought a sub sandwich you could get stamps. Collect enough of th...

We are in the throes of winter now with our daylight winding down each day as we approach the winter’s Solstice. The snow has arrived and the winter storms are now lining up along the Aleutians and heading in one after another. The interior has dropped well below zero now and the night sky can be lit up with the always vibrant colors of the Aurora . For many Alaskans the images of Alaska are embedded deeply within our Alaskan consciousness. It does not matter what time of year as we have seen first hand images of sentinel pine trees frozen in time. The sight of our native people gathered together on the beach harvesting a whale for their subsistence lifestyle; of glaciers with a majestic azure blanketing the peripherals with giant walls of white. The huskies hopping through a snow drift glad to be pulling a sled through snow now and not a four-wheeler across the tundra, the tips of their fur crystallized and glistening. We need these reminders now as the day...

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Day as there is much to be thankful for in these days and times. And for those of us who prefer . . . Have a great day! Ice

I witnessed something this afternoon at work that almost seems like a typical Alaska holiday disaster. Yesterday we bought Turkeys for everyone so they would have a nice 20 pound bird for their Thanksgiving dinner. We wanted to make sure they were bought in time to allow the birds to thaw in time for dinner on Thursday. As things would happen we wanted to have them at the shop by three thirty when the crews returned at the end of their shift. The back of my rig was filled with the turkeys and just after returning it started to snow. It was light at first with that icy snow cone texture but quickly turned into a nice fluffy big flake snowfall. Everyone helped themselves to the turkeys stashed in the back of my pick up and several put them into the back of theirs. No worries it is cold so there is no worry of anything spoiling. Off everyone goes into the darkness heading home to places unknown with nice best wishes for a nice family meal in a couple ...

It’s getting colder here in Alaska and once again its time for more great food as our freezers are stocked now from another season of hunting and fishing. There is also much talk about Sarah Palin since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate. She is an outdoor’s woman who hunts and fishes with the best of them and like many Alaskans has done her share of preparing game meat for her family. And speaking of PETA I have been getting some crazy feedback from my new recipe book I have been working on. It is a kind of recipe book on “Road Kill” from Alaska and many Nations and other such nonsense. Now before the PETA folks all get in an uproar there are varying organizations of PETA. There is the P rimary E ducation T eacher’s A ssociation And the P eople for the E thical T reatment of A nimals But the one I like best, P eople E at T asty A nimals My section of Alaskan Fare in my area includes: Moose and Squirrel Meat Balls ...

I needed this one after a long grueling week. This came along to brighten my day. Enjoy! It’s getting colder outside this week and the radio said that Fairbanks today was minus -15˚F this evening while I was driving home from work. It’s only October what’s up with that? Have a great weekend! Ice